Could You Sum Up Your Life’s Purpose in One Sentence?
Here’s a question I love putting people on the spot with: if I asked you what your life stands for, could you say it in one sentence?
Take a second. Really try.
If you came up blank, you’re in good company. When I asked Lisa this same question on a recent episode of The Other 99%, her answer was an honest “no — there’s no way I could do that.” And I’d guess most of you reading this couldn’t either.
It’s not because we don’t care about where we’re headed. It’s because most of us never sit still long enough to actually think about it.
Why we stay stuck in reactive mode
If you’re in direct sales — or running any kind of business, really — you know the feeling. A text comes in. A DM. A notification. And suddenly you’re reacting instead of leading.
I got to a point where every incoming message felt like a small dread spiral, because I knew it meant someone needed something from me. So I did something simple: I sat down, went through my phone settings, and turned off every notification except the ones from my actual people. Everything else got silenced.
Here’s the thing I had to admit to myself — most of that urgency wasn’t coming from other people’s expectations. It was coming from my assumption of what they expected. That’s worth sitting with for a second: are people actually expecting an instant response from you, or are you just assuming they are?
We chase what feels good, not what moves us forward
In direct sales, it’s easy to stay laser-focused on the things that give us an immediate hit — a sale, a new recruit, a like, a comment, a full party. Those moments feel good. They’re tangible. They’re the little dopamine boosts that keep us chasing the next thing.
But how often do we stop and ask why we’re doing any of it in the first place?
I think about this with my own YouTube channel. For a long time, my only goal was “make videos, get subscribers.” It wasn’t until Lisa asked me, “What do you actually want people to do?” that I realized a goal without a destination is just busywork. You could have a million subscribers — but if no one’s taking the next step you actually want them to take, the number means nothing.
The same goes for email lists. Lisa talks people off the ledge all the time who want to upload 20,000 contacts they’ve collected over the years. A list of 1,000–1,500 warm, engaged leads will outperform 20,000 cold ones every time — better open rates, better click rates, better results. Less really is more when it’s aligned with where you’re going.
Your mission is your anchor
Your mission isn’t a tagline. It’s where you want to be, how you define your purpose. Once you know it, your decisions start making themselves — because anything that doesn’t serve that mission becomes easy to release.
Your vision is the direction you’re heading. Your values are how you’ll get there — the principles guiding the choices and the content and the relationships you build along the way.
None of this comes naturally to most of us, myself included. “Core values” can feel like a buzzword until you actually sit down and do the work of naming them.
Your homework: the 3-to-5-year vision
Here’s the exercise I walk through in The Intentional Life Workbook, and it’s the one I want you to sit with this week:
In 3 to 5 years, if I am fully living in alignment with my values and my mission, my life looks like this: ___________
Not when you’re retired. Not “someday.” Three to five years — close enough to feel real, far enough to dream a little.
Once you’ve got a picture of that, hold your current roles and responsibilities up against it. Ask: does this align with where I want to be? If I let it go, does it move me closer, further away, or does it just not matter either way?
Some responsibilities you can’t release, and that’s okay — that’s life. But you’ll be amazed how many of the things draining you simply aren’t on the path to where you actually want to go.
Why this matters before you ever get to “no”
Once your mission, vision, and values are clear, something shifts. Things don’t suddenly become perfect — but they get easier. You stop reacting to every ping, every opportunity, every “you should really be doing this” and start filtering everything through one simple question: does this take me where I’m going?
That’s exactly the groundwork we need before we can talk about saying no with confidence — which is exactly what’s coming next.
Start building your anchor
If you’re ready to stop spinning in reactive mode and start building decisions on a real foundation, grab Module 1 of The Intentional Life Workbook for free. It walks you through exactly this — defining your mission, your vision, and your values, step by step.
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